THE arrogance of some of the people working for our local authorities and the Highways Partnership is unbelievable to say the least.

Your article about the traffic calming proposals in Wribbenhall amply demonstrates what I have believed has been happening for years in local government.

Council Tax payers are regarded as merely here to foot the bill for the schemes these people put forward. It makes no difference whatsoever that people don't actually want what is put forward.

Don't get me wrong. If the residents of Wribbenhall (and that includes motorists) want what is being proposed on their behalf, all well and good. But it does seem odd that what was apparently a request for traffic controls outside the lower school to reduce the speed of traffic has now grown to be a £100,000 scheme extending as far as putting a mini-roundabout at the entrance to the Ramada Hotel.

Other towns and cities seem to have managed the problem of traffic outside schools by imposing 20mph speed limits on the roads surrounding schools and enforcing them. Why can't that be done in Wribbenhall - for a lot less than £100,000?

As for the Catchem's End road junction, the public servant concerned should note that many people who use that junction frequently knew nothing of public meetings and so were unable to voice any views on the subject.

The money that has been thrown at this junction is outrageous, and has done nothing more than shift the congestion from the road junction concerned to the roundabout at the end of Kidderminster Road, and the roads leading from it.

I believe that the problem of Catchem's End could have been solved by the erection of a sign saying "No right turn, Monday-Friday, 4-6pm", and failing that a mini-roundabout should have been installed.

The Highways Partnership says there is insufficient room, but there is more room there than outside the Ramada Hotel where they are proposing one.

It is unfortunate that our councils see traffic control as nothing more than restricting traffic and making it slower (the traffic lights on Kidderminster's Bewdley Hill and Comberton Road, singling of dual carriageways, and putting in cycle lanes which are hardly ever used).

Efforts should instead concentrate on making traffic flow quicker AND safer.

ALAN LEEKE

Stourport Road, Bewdley